It’s Not About The Music Lyrics!
Hey!!!!
I am feeling SOOOO inspired to write this blog for you tonight!
Earlier this evening, Bertha Delgadillo and I went live together on Instagram to share about how we “ease” into music EARLY in the year with our new classes! ALL of them, even the most novice classes, benefit GREATLY from this early exposure to music in the World Language Classroom!
If you missed the LIVE and are interested in watching the recording, you can catch it by clicking the image below! Don’t have Instagram!? That’s ok! There’s another opportunity for you to join us later this week! Just keep reading!
Our Journey With Music in Classrooms
My FAVORITE part of the chat tonight and the reason I feel so inspired to write this now, is that Bertha and I shared our personal journey with bringing music into our classrooms. Both our stories were very different but so very important!
Bertha hasn’t always taught with Acquisition Driven Instruction. She used to pick what music she’d use in her class based on what grammatical theme she heard throughout the song. Tonight, she shared that this was incredibly “limiting” for her and her students.
I, on the other hand, literally refused to use ANY music other than Señor Wooly as content (love me some WOOLY!). I mean yes, I would play music as students were entering or exiting my class or for Brain Breaks like this one I shared in the second blog I ever wrote (GOSH, I’ve come a long way!) SURE!
However, I never used songs as content because I’ve ALWAYS taught using acquisition driven instruction and the fact of the matter is that songs almost 100% of the time had WAYYYY too much language that was “out of bounds” and far beyond the high frequency structures I was working so hard to help my students to acquire. Why waste my time!??!
Whew, I was WAY off!
Students and Music Lyrics
I spent SO much time worrying about the music lyrics when really using SONGS as Authentic Resources in the world language classroom is about SO much more than the words in the songs!
In fact, there are songs that I barely explore the lyrics with my students at all!!!
When we are using songs in our classes, we are given the opportunity to deep dive into SO many aspects of culture! We can learn about the artist, and can explore the message or the story that the music tells! You can compare and contrast the song, artist, and genre to other music that our students are familiar with!
The reality is, music really IS our student’s common language. They’re listening to and consuming music ALL the time, often times IN our classes with the lovely invention of AirPods!
Why not leverage this powerful tool and use it to inspire and bring JOY to not only our students but us as well? Go BEYOND the lyrics!
If you’re jealous you missed the LIVE tonight and want another opportunity to tune in and contribute to the conversation, join us on Friday evening August 5th at 6:30PM CDT as we go LIVE on my Facebook and YouTube Channels!
Easing Into Music
If you’re too inspired and eager to wait for that, I have something even better for you!
Bertha and I have been presenting a LOT together in the last 8 months, all about music. Each time we do our presentation, it grows, we keep adding more and more!
We realized in March it would be MAGICAL to put ALL of our knowledge, activities, templates, resources, ideas, tips and tricks together in ONE COURSE! A ONE-STOP-SHOP for Music in the World Language classroom!
Honestly, my favorite thing about the course is how Bertha has worked tirelessly to “chunk” the trainings into bite-sized digestible chunks!
You can watch more than 5 hours of content and DOZENS of strategies in small doses, which allows you to be strategic in the planning and immediate implementation of them in your own world language class!
Of course, since Bertha and I are both full-time teachers ourselves, the course is FULL of real videos of our own students modeling the activities!
I am SO excited to hear about how this course infuses JOY in your class this year, for both YOU and your students. I’m also eager to hear about the ways in which it inspires your students!
We’re so confident you’re going to LOVE it, and Bertha and I couldn’t be more proud to share it with you today!
I hope to see you on Friday as we get together again to share about how we “Ease into Music” with our students at the very beginning of the year! Thursday, I start with my students! I can’t wait to meet them!
Until next time teacher,
MUCH love,
Annabelle